RUI: Microscopic Structure and Magnetism in Rare Earth Amorphous Alloys

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The PI proposes to study the local structure and magnetic properties of rare earth amorphous alloys over a range of temperature from approximately .05K to room temperature or above, principally using the Mossbauer effect. The original experiments will be extended to other non-magnetic metal constituents such as aluminum and gallium, and then to the more complicated amorphous systems with the magnetic transition metals, which are of technological interest. As a microscopic probe yielding angular information about the arrangements of ions and magnetic information about individual rare earth ions, the Mossbauer effect is well suited for such studies. Experiments over the range of temperature proposed here will yield information about crystalline electric field parameters, exchange fields, and distributions of these, to be compared to various models of amorphous structure such as dense-random-packing-of- hard-spheres or random network models. These results are anticipated to make a significant contribution to the developing field of amorphous structure and magnetism. The proposed research is also expected to have a major impact on the educational environment of the Physics Department at Franklin and Marshall College by continuing the increased amount of active experimental research on campus, and by continuing the collaboration with Stanford University and contacts with the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.